What to listen for:

Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, welcome Bob Deeds back to debrief the first-ever chicken workshop hosted at Robin's farm.

Bob, drawing on the legacy of Keller and Marian Breland and Bob Bailey, the operant conditioning pioneers behind Animal Behavior Enterprises and the IQ Zoo, explains that the chicken workshop isn't really about chickens at all!

White Leghorns, selected for their speed and reactivity, are a crucible for the trainer, forcing observational precision, mechanical timing, and real-time decision-making that slower species simply can't demand. The group that gathered at Robin's farm was a genuinely mixed bag: a horse trainer, professional detection handlers, a pet dog trainer who also teaches others, and a sport dog handler who arrived feeling self-conscious about her credentials.

By the end, that trainer was unrecognizable in the best way. Her confidence transformed, her mechanics sharpened, her sense of belonging earned.

What the hosts return to again and again is the downstream effect of students reaching out weeks later, saying they finally had the words to explain a dog's behavior to a client, or that they rewrote a puppy class mid-workshop. That's the whole point.

Key Topics:

• Chicken Workshops: Purpose and The Breland-Bailey Legacy (01:11)
• White Leghorns as the Training Tool of Choice (04:22)
• Diverse Trainers, One Great Equalizer (07:33)
• Frodo: The Making of a Serial Peck-Machine (08:57)
• Upcoming October Workshop and Future Plans (23:31)
• Staying on the Farm: Community and Communal Dinners (23:39)
• Training Is a Perishable Skill (32:53)
• What's Next: Bob's Scent Wall, Robin's Travels, Stacy's NW Classes (36:05)
• Takeaways (42:06)

Resources:

• Register for Distraction Camp & IHHS https://www.k9detectioncollaborative.com/events
• Register for MUTC https://www.k9sensus.org/event-details/k9sensus-mutc-2026
• Register for MYC: Chicken Workshop in October https://www.k9sensus.org/event-details/mastering-your-mechanics-oct-2026
• Register for Stacy's classes! https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/schedule-and-syllabus

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